Many different types of barrier net exist and they can be used for a wide variety of purposes. Barrier nets are commonly used in the aviation industry, for example, main deck barrier nets in the fuselage of aircraft. It is well known to use nets as barriers on aircraft to restrain cargo that would otherwise move and penetrate into areas occupied by aircraft personnel, critical equipment and systems and/or access door or emergency access routes during the acceleration and deceleration of the aircraft during take-off and landing and also during the extreme deceleration of the aircraft during emergency landing.
Traditionally, such barrier nets comprise a network of webbing members lined up vertically and horizontally and stitched together into a rectangular grid pattern. Alternative configurations of main deck barrier nets include “spider web” nets, in which the webbing members are lined up radially and circumferentially about a central torus and stitched together, and diamond grid nets, such as those disclosed in EP 1470044B. Such nets are conventionally fitted with securing means, e.g. hooks, shackles, quick release fittings, snap latches, and single and double stud floor fittings, to connect the net to the aircraft structure, e.g. attachment points provided spaced around the fuselage and floor of the aircraft.
The success of the net to act as a barrier to moving cargo relies on the net forming a profile when loaded that does not encroach into the areas it is intended to protect, while safely distributing the resulting tensile load into the aircraft structure. Currently available nets suffer from a number of disadvantages, in particular in terms of their ability to allow a net to be designed that imparts near equal loads on all of the attachment points. This can lead to excessively high loads being imposed on certain attachment points and the need for local reinforcing of the aircraft structure. Alternatively, it leads to a complex and expensive net. For example, in the case of a conventional rectangular grid net, the majority of the load is directed horizontally and vertically and only a relatively small portion of the load is imparted in the diagonal directions. This results in an excessively large load being imparted on certain attachment points.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome some of the problems of the prior art, or at least to offer an alternative to the prior art barrier nets.